phase change v water cooling

Associate
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8 Sep 2009
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Which would be better for cooling an overclocked i7? phase change or water cooling?

Are phase change units noisy? Would a phase change unit add a lot more money to my electricity bill?
 
Soldato
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17 Aug 2009
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A phase change unit is literally a hacked fridge, that's how noisy it is.

The only differences between a fridge and a "phase change unit" is that the pump unit has been boxed up, the radiator has had to be made smaller and a fan has to now force air through the radiator because it's too compressed to dissipate enough heat passively. Some minor difference in where the fluid gets pumped to as well ^_^

So +1 fans worth of noise on top of a fridge compressors hum, possibly + another fans noise if it has one cooling its power supply.


Phase change is vastly more capable of cooling than water. Water cannot go below ambient temperature. Phase change is as I said literally a fridge and that can go well below ambient temperature into negatives.

It will eat much more power though. You don't get that kind of difference between room and cooled temperature without putting some energy in.
 
Soldato
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That you're asking means you don't want phase. However,

Phase is a lot louder, for the obvious reason of having a compressor running. It isn't a fridge, though air con units can be adapted, since the fridge can't cope with a large sustained heatload. This is why we don't cool computers with fridges. Generally they are made by people at home, or you pay someone to do this for you. I think costs come out around £800 or so for a unit, but that's a very crude estimate.

It will do bad things to your electricity bill, but if you're willing to spend the best part of a grand on one this probably doesn't matter. The other option is peltiers, which I think is a much nicer idea, and cheaper, but is again generally self assembled and will absolutely ruin your electricity bill.

The best in terms of degrees is phase. The best in terms of practicality, cost, noise, almost everything else really is water. Air is louder and hotter but cheaper. Above ambient (well, dew point) is wise as it avoids condensation issues
 
Soldato
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mine is rated for 300w and costs me roughly £20 a week in juice :eek:
but it holds a 4ghz Q6600 at -40 with ease
they are loud, but not huge, imagine a 4890 with fan set to 75% and you get an idea

also takes an awful lot of preperation, moisture sealing etc, and gunky grease everywhere.
plus nomatter how much prep you do theres always a risk of moisture damage to your expensive mobo.

it does give a large e-peen boost though :)
 
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